Ghana is a country in West Africa. You may have played the Achi game from Ghana, described on page 14. The children of Ghana play several different versions of Mankala, the “game of transferring.” The most popular version in the United States is called Oware (Oh-WAHR-ee), played by the Asante people of central Ghana. In southern Ghana people are more likely to play Adi (Ah-dee). Both games are played on a board that has two rows of six cups each, with four counters in each cup at the start of the game, but the rules are different.
The cups are called houses. Children gather Adi seeds from the Aditi bushes and place four seeds in each of the houses. At each end of the board is a storage cup called the treasury. The object of the game is to buy up all the opponent’s houses.
• Empty (one dozen) egg carton with the lid removed
• Colored markers
• 2 small bowls or cups
• 48 counters of one kind (beans, buttons, pebbles, or shells)
The board has six cups on each side, twelve cups total. An egg carton makes a perfect game board. You might want to decorate it with patterns that are popular in Ghana or other African countries. Place one bowl or cup at each end of the board as the treasury to hold the captured seeds. Figure 12
1. The players sit facing each other with the game board between them. They place four seeds in each space. The six spaces, called houses, on each side of the board belong to the player nearest them. The treasury to the right of each player belongs to that player.
Figure 12
Figure 13
2. To move, Player One picks up the four seeds from any house on her side of the board and drops them, one by one, into each house, going around to the right, leaving the starting house empty. Some seeds may fall into the houses on the opponent’s side of the board. Do not drop seeds into the treasury.
3. This game is played in laps. If the last seed falls into a house already containing seeds, the player picks them all up and continues around, each time picking up all the seeds from the house in which she has just dropped her last seed. Her turn ends when the last seed falls into an empty house. Then Player Two does the same thing, starting on his side of the board.
One move may cover a lot of ground. Suppose that Player One makes the first move from the first house on her side. The diagram shows the game board at the end of her move. She has gone around the whole board more than twice, and dropped her last seed in the third house on her side. Carry out this move and see whether your board looks like the one in the diagram. Figure 13
4. If a player makes a house of four as he drops his last seed, he captures that group of seeds, whether they lie on his side or the opponent’s side of the board. He may also capture any house of four that appears on his side of the board, even if it happens during his opponent’s turn. He must be quick enough to pick up the four seeds before the opponent drops a fifth seed into that house. He places the captured seeds in his treasury.
If a player has no seeds on her side when it is her turn, she skips her turn.
5. When there are eight seeds left on the board, the player who captures the next four also gets the last four. That ends the first round of the game.
6. The winner of the round is the player with more than enough seeds in her treasury to fill her houses with four in each. She uses the leftover seeds to “buy” any empty houses she chooses from her opponent by filling them with her own seeds.
7. The players then start the next round. Suppose Player One has bought eight houses, the six on her side and any two she chooses on the other side. In the next round she owns all eight houses and fills them with her 32 seeds. Her opponent may use only four houses. The rules are the same as for the first round.
The object of the game is to buy all the opponent’s houses and own the whole board.
1. When you are learning the game, you may want to place three seeds in each house. How will you change the other rules? You may decide that captures are made in groups of three.
2. Another way to simplify the game is to use a board having four houses in each row.
3. Play both sides by yourself to see how the game works out.
